


When Tragedy Befalls You

by GinnyK



Series: Lights Will Guide You Home [2]
Category: The Newsroom (US TV)
Genre: Death, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/M, post ep O Shenandoah
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-01
Updated: 2015-03-01
Packaged: 2018-03-15 21:01:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,756
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3461870
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GinnyK/pseuds/GinnyK
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A little glimpse at what happens after Mac tells Will that Charlie died.</p>
<p>Picks up shortly before the end of my previous story, (It Was Almost) The First Time in Forever</p>
            </blockquote>





	When Tragedy Befalls You

“Charlie had a heart attack a few hours ago.  He died.” And with those words I feel Will sag against me.  I take a step back with one foot to steady both of us.  He says nothing, just holds me tightly.  I don’t really want to do this here.  We are both seconds away from completely falling apart and standing outside the Manhattan Detention Center is not my idea of a good place to do this.  “Let’s get in the car,” I whisper as I take a step out of his embrace.  I feel him nod his head and I grab his arm.  I lead him to the car, opening the door so he can climb in.  He scoots across the seat and I follow him.

“Home?” I ask I shut the door.  Will just nods.  He leans forward to tell our driver Chris the destination.  Chris drove for Charlie, it’s a difficult night for him too.

Will sits next to me, saying nothing.  His forehead leans against the window and he watches the New York night go by.  I am completely unsure of what to do.  Reaching a tentative hand out to him, I’m almost afraid to touch him for fear he will lose his tenuous grip on emotional control.  I can hear him take a deep, shaking breath, letting it out so the window fogs slightly.  He blindly reaches his right hand towards me as he leans forward a little. I scoot over until I’m half sitting behind him.  As I gently rub his back I can feel his breathing is way too shallow and his heart is beating way too fast.  I reach around him to put the window down a little to let in some fresh air. 

“Billy, take a deep breath,” I whisper.    My voice is lost in the rush of air coming in the window.  “Take a deep breath and hold it,” I try a little louder this time.  He does his best but isn’t exactly successful.  I so do not want him to spiral into a full blown panic attack right now.  I look out the window to gauge how much longer until we’re home.  My guess, at 1:00 in the morning without much traffic, 10 minutes.  He mutters a few things and to be honest I have no idea what he’s saying.

“Mac, everything okay?” Chris asks as he rolls to a stop at a red light.  He looks over his shoulder to check on us.

 “I have no idea,” I answer honestly.

“I’ll have you home as soon as I can,” he assures me.  He eases off the brake as the light turns green.

My estimate of 10 minutes is pretty accurate.  Chris pulls up and hops out to open Will’s door.  He takes him by the hand as I grab the books Will brought from jail and my bag.  I decline Chris’ offer to help me get Will upstairs. 

Will slumps in the corner of the elevator, giving me a very weak smile.  I kiss his cheek and wipe away the first little tears which threaten to fall.

When the elevator stops, I steer him into our apartment.  Considerable work has been done in the almost two months he’s been gone.  Will kicks off his shoes and sheds his jacket, dropping it on the floor.  It just hits me now that he’s dressed in his wedding suit. I pick up the jacket and toss it on the bench in the entryway.  He wanders around, checking out the progress in silence.  I kick off my shoes and go to change out of my clothes.  As I slip my shirt off I notice a spot on the cuff.  It’s red and it take me a few seconds to realize that it is blood, Charlie’s blood.  I had held his handkerchief against his forehead while talking on the phone with Nancy, explaining what had happened.  It was one of the hardest phone calls of my life.

I throw on yoga pants and a long sleeved ACN t-shirt which is so big on me, I’m pretty sure it must belong to Will.  I roll the sleeves up and pull my hair loose from the messy ponytail it’s been up in since early evening.  I run a brush through it put it back up in a bun.

I hear Will in the kitchen as I leave the bedroom.  I watch him from the doorway unnoticed for a minute or so.  He’s sitting at the table with a can of ginger ale.  He takes a sip, pushes the can aside and props his elbows up on the table.  Head in his hands I hear him take a deep shaky breath and let it out with a small sob. 

I’m done with giving him space.  I cross the room and wrap my arms around him from behind.  “Come out to the couch,” I whisper in his ear.  He nods and pushes himself up, heading for the living room.  Last time he was here, we were sitting on cardboard boxes and eating take out.  I’ve since picked out a couch, chair and some tables.  The walls are still bare but it’s a start.

He all but falls onto the couch and dissolves into heartbreaking sobs.  I manage to wedge myself between him and the corner of the couch, pulling him close. 

Words aren’t going to do a thing right now so I don’t even bother.  He’ll ask his questions, and I’m sure there will be plenty of them, later.  I brush back his thick blond hair and kiss his forehead.  As I comfort him as best I can I realize that he’s basically said nothing since I told him Charlie died.  And that’s starting to really concern me.  That and the fact that if he doesn’t calm himself down he’s going to make himself sick.

“Will, honey take a deep breath,” I whisper in his ear.  He manages take a few deep breaths with a little coaching from me.  “Better?” I ask when he stops shaking quite so much. 

“Yeah,” he replies as he clumsily swipes at his eyes.  He moves away from he and leans back on the couch, long legs stretched out in front of him.  I can tell he’s trying to figure out where to start with his questions. 

“I’ll be right back.  You need anything?”

“Bourbon,” he mutters as he pulls his shirt tails out of his pants.  Charlie’s favorite, the very thought brings more tears to my eyes.

Our hard liquor has never really been unpacked, a conscious choice on my part.  Would have been way too easy to drown my sorrows and frustrations in liquor these last two months.  Keeping it packed up help a little.  That’s not to say friends haven’t brought stuff by lately.  There has been a steady stream of people in and out for the last 2 months.  Most people came armed with food, drink and the best of intentions.

But I know we have a bottle of bourbon somewhere, Charlie was over one night a few weeks ago and he always comes prepared…came prepared.  I spy the bottle he brought on top of the fridge.  Surprisingly it is almost full.  But then I remember, by the time Charlie and I got back here he was beyond exhausted and had only managed to finish a glass before he fell asleep on the couch.  I’d called Nancy and we debated the merits of waking him and sending him home.  In the end I pulled his shoes and bowtie off, covered him up, kissed his forehead and left him there. 

I shake my head to brush away the memories as I pull the bottle down.  I pour two glasses and take them out to the living room. 

And the room is empty.

“Will?” I call out.

“Bedroom, or at least I think it’s our bedroom,” he calls back.  The room went from a mattress on the floor, no walls and clothes in boxes to a full decorated oasis, complete with finished master bath.

“Like it?” I ask as I hand him a glass.  He just nods. 

“To Charlie,” he says quietly as he holds up his glass to mine, clinking it softly.

“To Charlie,” I repeat. 

We each take a drink in Charlie’s memory.

“Tell me what happened,” Will says quietly.  He puts his glass on the dresser and unbuttons his white dress shirt.  I realize he has no idea where his clothes actually are so I grab a t-shirt and a pair of sleep shorts. “Tub done?”

“Yep.  Want to try it out?”

“Together?”

“Of course.”

We head into the bathroom, which is quite possibly my favorite room in the house.  Or at least it is until we finish the rest of the apartment.

“Wow, you picked out more than tile,” Will mutters as we enter the bathroom.

“I did.  I wanted to do as much as I could while you were gone,” I explain as I take a seat on the counter.  Will starts the water in the tub and moves to stand in front of me.  I lift his hands one by one and unbutton the cuffs.  I slide the shirt off while he slips off his pants.  He stands between my knees and wraps his arms around me, resting his chin on the top of my head.

“Tell me the story,” he whispers.  “I have a feeling there’s more to it than Charlie having a heart attack this evening.  Am I right?”  He steps back and reaches to lift my chin a little so I look him in the eyes. 

“Yeah.  Let me get a bottle of water while the tub fills.”

Will climbs into the tub while I’m gone.  It’s not full yet but it doesn’t seem like he particularly cares all that much. “Bubble bath or jets?” he calls as I’m coming back into the bedroom.

“Jets,” I answer as I slip out of my yoga pants and t-shirt.

I climb into the tub and just melt into the arms of my husband.  He holds me tight for a minute but I can tell he really wants to hear about this past week.

“I remember Charlie didn’t come last Monday to visit because he was sick.  You said he probably just had a stomach virus.  Was there more to it than that?” Will asks as he links our hands together.

“Not really, nothing heart related.  Nancy thinks it was just everything catching up with him at once.  He’d been, in Nancy’s words, “spiraling downward” for the past few weeks, physically as well as emotionally.  Stress and anxiety were taking a toll on his physical health.  Wasn’t eating right, sleeping.  He was just miserable.  And that kind of came to a head on Monday and Nancy spent, as she put it, way too much time in the bathroom holding his head and rubbing his back. So he had left early on Monday and ended up working from home on Tuesday.”

“Working from home.  Why couldn’t you two just get him to just stay home and sleep?” Will asks.  Deep down he knows the answer to that question.  It involves a stubborn old man who loves the news…loved the news.

“Believe me, we tried,” I mutter as I turn on my side a little, wrapping my arm around Will’s waist.  “Anyway, he had an appointment with his doctor on Thursday which didn’t go well.  He wanted Charlie to have some tests done.  Cardiac and GI mainly.  Told them if things didn’t change soon they were looking at major event in the near future.  Nancy had gone with him to the appointment and we had lunch together afterwards.  She’d tried to talk to him about retirement but hadn’t gotten very far.  We made plans to double team him and I went home with him on Friday and spent the night there.”

“I’m glad you got to spend some time with him over the weekend.”

“Me too, it was nice.  Sloan and Don came over on Saturday along with Katie, the boys and some of Beau’s friends.  Charlie grilled for us and we had a nice time.  The boys swam and we girls gossiped on the deck.  It was the most relaxed we’d seen Charlie in a long time.”

“Not that it matters now but how far did you get with the retirement talk?” Will asks as he shifts himself a little to put his left knee in front of one of the jets.

“By the time we were done he’d made plans to have a serious conversation with Nancy on Sunday.  Which he did.  He was supposed to talk to Lucas this week to discuss retiring at the end of the year.”

I stop short in my storytelling as we’re now up the part where I play a bigger role than I ever want to admit.  I take a deep breath and tell Will about the interview.  He listens quietly, asking no questions.  For that I’m glad.

“Charlie told us to stay where we were and that he was going to talk to Pruitt and he would be right back down.  He turned, stopped at a desk, put his hand down on the edge of it and collapsed.  It was like it happened in slow motion.  He hit his head on the way down, had a gash over his right eye.”  I feel Will take a deep breath and let it out slowly.  “Are you sure you want to hear all the details?”

“Tell me everything,” he whispers.  I know that short of the entire night never happening in the first place, what Will wishes for most is that he had been there.  So I will do my best to paint a detailed picture of what happened.

“Don got to Charlie first.  He undid his bowtie and unbuttoned his collar.  Charlie tried to say something, but we couldn’t understand him.  Someone called 911, Tess maybe, I don’t even remember.  Sloan and I tried to keep him from moving.  I pressed his handkerchief against the gash in his head.  Sloan put her hand on his cheek and just talked to him.  I pulled his phone from his belt and called Nancy.  It was, by far, the hardest phone call of my life.  She’d been waiting for him to call back as he’d called her before heading down to deal with Sloan and I.  Apparently he…when he was done with us he was going to….”

“Mac…Mac,” Will whispers.  “What was Charlie going to do?”

“When Charlie called Nancy before coming down to the bullpen he told her he was done.  He was going to deal with us and tell Pruitt he was retiring as soon as possible.”

“Shit,” is the only reply Will can muster up right now.

“EMTs came.  They worked on him for a while and got him somewhat stabilized but I could tell they weren’t really hopeful.  I went in the ambulance with Charlie.  He was conscious but not really coherent.  I think he knew I was there.  I held his hand and told him how much we loved him.”

What I don’t tell Will is one of the things I talked to Charlie about in the ambulance was that I needed him to live to see our child.

“What about Nancy?  Where was she when it happen, at home?”

“She was home.  Jenna called for a car to pick up both Nancy and Katie.  I sent someone to my office to grab Katie’s number from my phone.  I didn’t think to get her number off Charlie’s phone before I used it to call Nancy.  Sloan called Katie and told her what was going on.  Apparently Ned was with Nancy and sitting right next to her when I called.”

“Poor little guy,” Will sighs.

“Katie and Beau met Nancy at the house and they left the boys behind.  Sloan and Don followed the ambulance in a cab.  I kept in touch with Nancy via text until she and Katie got there.”

“Did they make it before Charlie died?”  I shake my head against Will’s shoulder.

“He died about 10 minutes before they arrived.  The ER wasn’t busy and the staff was able to just leave him in the room so Nancy and Katie were able to spend a few minutes with him.  Katie only went in for a minute, her focus was on the boys.  I went in to say goodbye and then Nancy sent me to get you.  She didn’t want you to hear it from anyone else.  I haven’t talked to her since.  Sloan texted that she and Don were starting to make calls before they left the hospital.  Nancy asked them to call Leona and Pruitt first.  They will break the news on the morning show in a few hours.”

“I want to talk to her,” Will whispers as he sits up straight.  I scoot over a little to let him do so.

“Talk to who?” I whisper as I brush back his hair.  It’s sticking up from the steam of the bath. 

“Nancy,” he mutters as he runs a hand down his face.

“Why don’t you text and see if she’d up to talking?” I suggest.  He nods and stands up to climb out of the tub leaving me to soak for a few more minutes. 

He throws on the shirt and shorts I got out for him earlier and wanders around the room for a minute, clearly having no idea where anything is.

“Mac where’s my…”

“You phone is on the kitchen counter, next to the fridge.  It’s all charged.”

He mutters his thanks and heads out of the bedroom.  I take a few deep breaths and try to think what to do next.  I know he’ll want to see Nancy, Katie and the boys as soon as he can.  Hopefully I can hold him off until the sun comes up.  I also want him to get some sleep.  I know he hasn’t been sleeping well, neither of us have. Also on my mind it that we are essentially newlyweds who haven’t had a wedding night yet. I don’t even know how I feel about that at this very moment.

 I climb out of the tub and wrap myself in a towel figuring nothing is going to get accomplished if I’m still in our beautiful tub.

I can hear Will on the phone with Nancy and I give him some privacy.  I pull the t-shirt back on, not bothering with the yoga pants as the shirt is most definitely Will’s.  I take our empty glasses out to the kitchen.  Will’s disappeared again and seeing as the door to our terrace is open he must be out there.  He waves me out. I head out, hoping the night is still warm as I’m not exactly dressed to be outside.  It’s still warm enough to be out for a few minutes.

“Okay, we will see you soon.  Kiss Katie and the boys.  I love you.”  Will ends the call and turns to put the phone down when he realizes we have no furniture at all on the terrace.  I take the phone from him as he looks out over the city.  “Told her we would come out late morning, if that’s okay.”

“Of course it is.  How are they?”

“In shock.  Took a while to get the boys settled down.  Ned apparently won’t leave Charlie’s office and Beau is asleep in Charlie’s recliner in the den.”

“Those poor boys.  They were looking forward to spending more time with Charlie,” I reply as I cross the terrace to stand next to Will.  He throws his arm around my shoulders and presses a kiss to the top of my head.

Now what?” he asks.  I glance at his phone, it’s almost 3:30 in the morning.

“I don’t know.  Do you want to try and sleep for a while?” I suggest carefully as I have no idea what he’s thinking about doing.

“I know I should sleep.  I don’t know that I can,” he admits.

 “There’s Ambien in the bathroom if you want to take something.”  Will just shrugs his shoulders.  We’re almost to that point of no return, he’s either going to sleep soon or stay awake and be absolutely miserable.

“Do you want some time alone?   Do you want something to eat?” I ask, sooner or later I’m going to run out of suggestions.  I’m hoping he takes me up on one of them.

“I think I’d like a few minutes alone,” he finally answers as he walks back into the house.  “Where is the little wooden box that was on my desk?”

“In the office, I think in the top drawer of your desk.  Just to warn you, the room isn’t quite done.  The drywall is up but we still need to paint and hang things up.”

“Honey, I didn’t expect you to finish the entire apartment in the last two months,” he teases. “I’ll come to bed in a little while,” he promises.

“Okay, love you.” Will kisses me and heads down the hall towards the office.

It takes me a minute to realize why he was concerned about the wooden box, his rosary is in there.

I brush my teeth and wash my face before crawling in to bed.  I hear him pad back into the bedroom a minute later and curl up in the overstuffed chair in the corner.  He gives me a weak smile as he pulls the rosary out of the pale gray pouch.  Although I am Catholic and I do believe, faith is much more important to Will than it is to me.  So I stay where I am and listen to him whisper—

Hail Mary,  
Full of Grace,  
The Lord is with thee.  
Blessed art thou among women,  
and blessed is the fruit  
of thy womb, Jesus.  
Holy Mary,  
Mother of God,  
pray for us sinners now,  
and at the hour of death.

 

When he’s done he crosses himself, tucks the rosary in the pouch and sets it on his dresser.  He brushes his teeth and climbs in to bed, wrapping his arms around me.

 

“So it occurs to me, Mrs. McAvoy, that we never celebrated our wedding night,” he whispers as he tucks a piece of hair behind my ear.

 

“You are correct, would you like to?” I ask with a smirk.

 

“I would,” he answers as he leans in for a kiss.

 

THE END

**Author's Note:**

> I had originally started what will be the 3rd story in this series short after The Newsroom ended. Then the story (It Was Almost) The First Time in Forever happened. I went back to work on the yet untitled 3rd story when this one happened. Apparently my muse is out of order.
> 
> Title comes from a line in the song "Let my Love Open the Door"
> 
> Series title comes from a line in the song "Fix You"
> 
> Both those songs, as well as Ave Marie, Shenandoah and How I Got to Memphis play on an endless loop as I work on this series.
> 
> Thanks for reading.


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